1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of gaseous mixtures comprising H.sub.2 and CO, e.g., synthesis gas, fuel gas, and reducing gas by the partial oxidation of pumpable slurries of solid carbonaceous fuels in a liquid carrier and/or liquid or gaseous hydrocarbon fuel. In one of its more specific aspects, the present invention relates to an improved burner for such gas manufacture.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Annulus-type burners have been employed for introducing liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuels into a partial oxidation gas generator. For example, coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,930 shows a single annulus burner, and coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,758,037 and 3,847,564 show double annulus burners. To obtain proper mixing, atomization, and stability of operation a burner is sized for a specific throughput. Should the required output of product gas change substantially, with prior-art burners, shut-down of the system is required in order to replace the prior-art burner with one of proper size. This problem is avoided and costly shut-downs are avoided by the subject burner which will operate at varying levels of output while retaining efficiency and stability. The more complex process for preheating a gas generator by means of a preheat burner, removing the preheat burner from the gasifier, and inserting a separate production burner is described in coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,445.
The nozzle tip of the central conduit of such prior art burners is substantially flush with or close to the face of the burner, and substantially no premixing of the reactants takes place upstream from the face of the burner. Accordingly in such burners, substantially all of the atomizing and mixing of the fuel stream with the oxygen stream takes place downstream from the face of the burner.